No. 3 Iolani crushes Waiakea, 70-37

Iolani's Bailey Alabanza drives to the hoop against fourth-seeded Waiakea. Sylvia Lee | SL

The marathon continues for No. 3 Iolani.

Playing their eighth game in 11 days, the Raiders showed no wear in dominating fourth-seeded Waiakea, 70-37, Wednesday night in a quarterfinal of the Snapple Division I state boys' basketball tournament at McKinley's Student Council Gymnasium.

Iolani will play top-seeded and No. 1 Kahuku in one semifinal, 5 p.m. Thursday at McKinley.

Since its regular-season finale, Iolani's road to defending its state title has gone through a two-tier regular-season playoff, a second-round and a playoff for the overall league title. After losing to Punahou Saturday for the ILH title, the Raiders played Monday in a first-round regional, beating Moanalua. Sunday was their only true off day since Feb. 4.

What has helped the Raiders is their depth. Wednesday night was an example when Frank Felix, part of Iolani's second set of five, led the Raiders with 13 points. Justin Genovia led the starters with 11.

"You look at Iolani, their length gave us a lot of problems," Waiakea coach Paul Lee said. "When their second group came in, they got rebounds. They're so deep it's hard to compete with a team that is 10 deep."

Ten different Raiders scored in the game.

Calvin Mattos led the Big Island Interscholastic Federation champions with 13 points, but was limited.

"Our boy, Calvin Mattos, he sprained his ankle in the (BIIF) championship game, so he pretty much played on one leg back in Hilo," Lee said. "This is the first time he ran in about five or six days. When he's out like that, it's hard for us to get our offense going. He draws so much attention, he gets the (other) shooters open. We kind of struggled with him having that limp in his legs."

The only time Waiakea led was early in the first period, 6-4. But the Raiders closed the quarter with an 11-2 run and never looked back.

With a comfortable lead, the Raiders not only rotated a full platoon, they cleared their bench. While their players had adequate rest in the game, it's hard to determine when fatigue will kick in. They are playing on adrenaline or playing on fumes.

"Any type of fatigue reduction we can get is good for us," Iolani coach Dean Shimamoto said. "With us playing so many games in so short a time, Sunday off was great for our guys. We want to try to save them as best we can because if we're fortunate enough to play two games – two meaningful games - they're going to be very difficult ones."

Of course, Shimamoto would have preferred to have more days off.

"I wish we would have played three games last week and three games this week," he said. "That probably would've been ideal for rest and preparation. Fatigue is kind of a cumulative effect, so we won't really know until fomorrow or Friday if it's really hurting us. But to get some rest today was helpful."

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].